With the opening of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona we were all guaranteed that something big would be announced by one of the mobile phone manufacturers. This year the top trump was won by Microsoft – not for a mobile phone but for an operating system. On Monday Microsoft announced its new version of Windows Mobile which will be called Windows Phone 7 Series. Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer said “It’s all about the phone and how consumers react to the device,”

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Windows Phone 7 Series sees Microsoft trying to play a stronger role/control with the user interface of its mobile phone software.

Windows Phone 7 Series also marks a move by Microsoft to take greater control of the user interface of its phone software. Whilst calling for more consistencies in platform hardware Microsoft intend to leave the hardware side of things primarily up to its partners.

Recently mobile phones and PCs appear to be merging in terms of what they do. However Microsoft wants to see more of a differentiation between the two products. It sees the mobile phone as a more personal device so it wants the user to be able to customize the phone interface.

The new interface will be similar to existing web browsers in that some of the “tiles” on the interface will automatically update to reflect frequently used contact details and local information. The tiles will also be grouped by theme [e.g. people, pictures etc]. Other “hubs” such as Office, Games and music + video will update and synchronize automatically with information from the internet.

Windows Phone 7 Series will not be all about personalisation and there will be many parts of the phone that will remain the same. On the front of the devices you will be able to quickly search using the start button. The phone will also be able to recognize addresses within emails and calendar entries and be able to convert them into hotlinks within Bing’s Maps.

The user interface supports a four point touch screen and an on screen QWERTY keyboard. The phone uses precise typeface and one word titles to differentiate the on screen themes [people, office, music] which means the display is not too busy and the graphics are well spaced. When you navigate you slide from page to page like a pack of cards.

The first version of the Windows Phone 7 Series will not include Adobe Flash and as yet it is unclear if it will support Microsoft’s Silverlight in place of the missing Flash. Orange and AT&T will be the first network operator partners that will develop services specifically aimed at this mobile device. However, as stated above Microsoft intends to keep a tight control over the interface. Partners will be able to add functionality rather than applications per se. People will still be able to download third-party applications and games certified by Microsoft.

Microsoft expects the first phones running the software to be available by the end of the year, and says that network operators including Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Verizon and Vodafone, and vendors including Samsung, LG, Sony-Ericsson and long-time partner HTC have committed to offering devices running Windows Phone 7 Series.

Windows Phone 7 Series - Office screen

Windows Phone 7 Series - pictures screen

Windows Phone 7 Series - people screen